Ranchers are constantly striving to maximize the productivity of their native rangeland, as raising and selling heavy and healthy calves is key to profitability. Helping producers enhance calf weight gain while maintaining the optimum body condition of the cow herd is critical to keeping operations profitable.

Efficiency is efficiency, right? Turns out, it’s probably not that simple. Efficiency in a feedlot and at the cow-calf level are two very different things.

It’s never too early to start planning for weaning. Several factors play a role in making weaning management decisions, such as drought, cow body condition, pasture conditions, weaning weight, calf sale contracts, labor and many others.

Calf prices look to be strong for the next few years as the national cow herd continues to bounce back from liquidations related to drought. These market conditions pose a great opportunity to increase profit potential through value-added programs.

In high school biology, we were introduced to the fact that a phenotype is a function of genetics and environment. As cattle producers, we are constantly trying to optimize these two pieces.

Rumen health is the cornerstone of a successful cow-calf operation, impacting calf health, maternal performance, feed utilization and, ultimately, economic profitability.

When selecting a bull, you want a bull who will add value to your operation, but the bull and his progeny must also be able to survive and thrive in the environment within your fences. So how do you choose the right bull?

Welcome to the second of three episodes of our coverage of NCBA 2024. In this episode, Tyrell Marchant visits with Jeff Heldt, beef technical lead with Selko USA, discussing if your inputs are doing what you think they are when it comes to nutrition and feed expenses.

Historically, the relative value of traits to the commercial cow-calf sector has been stated as the “10-to-2-to-1 rule of thumb,” where fertility traits are 10 times more important than carcass traits and five times more important than growth traits.